May 13, 2003
Jesus And Politics
Harper's Magazine: Jesus Plus Nothing, p. 1 of 11Some of you may remember an article a few months ago about seven or eleven congressmen all sharing a house that was discovered to belong to a religious organization.
A writer ended up stumbling in to the organization and wrote an exposé for Harper's.
The general gist is that this large community attracts people by appealing to their sense of service, and with the lure of giving oneself over to a protective force (Jesus) entirely. But the twist is that they tie it into a complete lack of accountability and responsibility. Removing self from the equation entirely means they can move entirely from "desire", interpret it as God's will, and not feel responsible for the consequences because they trust Jesus. They would see it as freedom from guilt - they feel no need to second-guess the impact of their actions, because they are agents of a higher purpose. The truth is that it isn't guilt and self-doubt they are making themselves free of. Instead, they are "freeing" themselves of their own essence. The moment they start turning against their essence is the moment that they start listening to someone else's rules about what parts of their soul are holy and unholy.
I'd sure like to know more about the rebuke moment they mentioned. The murmurings of "Thank you Jesus..." I wonder what came next? Is that just a big self-con to make themselves feel like they are accepting the "rebuke" (disagreement), without actually dealing with it? Do they then proceed to listen to the source of disagreement and integrate it into their own views? Or do they say a quick silent prayer and then change the subject in a state of essenceless "bliss"?
I've got my own religious beliefs, but they are far from this state-of-grace crap you come across so much in all the pseudo-Christian bullshit out there. What's interesting about this is that a lot of the qualities I'm reacting against here are prevalent in societal groups from all across the political spectrum. You've got faux Buddhism that tries to separate self from desire and earthly experience. You've got airy-fairy new age spirituality that tries to meditate the self away from intensity. You've got the free-love stoners, those offshoots of the hippies that are incapable of physically expressing a passionate opinion. You've got the whole centrist waffling political correctness thing. And you have the far religious right that is obsessed with demonizing the self. It's all fear of the self, using any opportunity possible to run away from the self.
That's not to say I think Objectivism and Atheism are valid, either. But I don't feel like venting about those right now.
People in this world cling to something that is solid and visable. The way some people portray religion that gives up their responsibilities and actions is not how the Bible tells us to be. You are responsible for your own actions no matter what. God gives us a choice and as you chose to write this letter. The way we misinterprete things is what affends people. No one is perfect except Jesus Christ and if people chose to follow in his footsteps but mess up, it is not Jesus's teachings that do it, but our own evil self that we are. We are evil people trying to do a good thing through Jesus.
Posted by: Josh at November 10, 2003 08:52 PMWell, your description is in the same family of what I wrote about. "evil self that we are" - it's another example of demonizing the self.